Ebay and Imei tampered mobile phones

[neolithian]

Here's a question.
I would assume all of us at some point have considered getting a mobile from ebay. How would you know if the phone had been tampered with ? I mean for instance if the phone was aquired illegitamatley and had the Imei tampered with, how would you know ? Also as importantly how does the network operator know ?
We are all aware of the consequences of performing this action yourself, but what happens if you buy something like this in good faith ?

 

[k4ce]

look , i think most of these chinese fones dont have IEMI numbers or have some invalid numbers ... ofcourse , very few of them must be having ... as of now , there is nothin anyone will do if u are using a phone widout an IEMI number ... but off late due to security concerns , operators are/will be doing something about this

eg *www.rimweb.in/forums/index.php?showtopic=15420&pid=122231&mode=threaded&start=

if u are talkin bout mainstream handsets like nokia , SE , moto , LG etc i dont think their IEMI numbers can be tampered wid easily and i'm sure not many will go thru the trouble of changing it (if at all , such a method does exist) and then selling on ebay ... so buy a mainstream handset from ebay without worries ...